While most sons and daughters are celebrating Mother’s Day with their mothers and their grandmothers, Tamara Tyler and Tayoun Bell are memorializing theirs.

Tyler, 33, social working major, said her mother, Frankie Mae died, last year on March 19.

“When everyone is celebrating Mother’s Day, I feel really sad because it’s not the same as when my mother was alive,” Tyler said.

Tyler said her mother was her rock and there are times when she feels so defeated without her.

“My mother promised that she would help me raise my son who just turned two-years-old one week prior to her death, so it still affects me everyday that she is not here physically in my life,” Tyler said.

Although her mother is not here, she still has the beautiful memories of the two of them enjoying cooking and shopping together. Tyler and her mother became very close in Tyler’s adult years.

“My mother is buried in Alabama, so I can’t even visit her grave site as often as I would like,” Tyler said

Bell, 21, undecided major, enjoys visiting his grandmother, Veola Thompson (a.k.a. “Granny”), at her grave site in Inglewood, as often as he likes.

Thompson passed away on Sept. 1, 2006.

“Our family grieves daily for her, we truly miss her and she has touched our lives in ways unimaginable,” Bell said.

Bell speaks with great clarity of his grandmother.

“Granny was the type of grandmother who adored all her children (son, daughters, grand-children and great grand-children).

“There are so many fun stories to tell about granny, that you truly would not know where to begin,” Bell said.

Mother’s Day for the past five years has been really hard on his family. This was the first death they experienced within their immediate family and it has affected each family member in their own way.

Stacey Cooley, Bell’s mother, spoke highly of the relationship Granny had with all of her grandchildren. “Granny spoiled her grandchildren, she would always say give my baby (Tayoun) anything he wants,” Cooley said.

Bell said this year he plans to do the family ritual.

“Our entire family goes out to Granny’s grave site and places beautiful arrangements of flowers to memorialize all the great times we enjoyed together,” Bell said.